It appears that Alan Greenspan’s theory about the sale of men’s underwear could possibly be an accurate indicator to economic recovery.  Greenspan determined that underwear is one of the first purchases that men defer when the economy is tight.   The sale of men’s underwear is typically level but recently The NPD Group has reported an increase of 4.7 percent in sales for the first half of the year.  Better yet, that falls in line with the recent report from the New York based Conference Board this week which indicated a rise in the consumer confidence index from 47.4 in July to 54.1 in August. What this means is that consumer’s assurance about spending is improving and optimism about growth is changing.

Now…the bigger question is this: does an increase in skivvies’ sales somehow translate to the technology sector? For us it does! With renewals on a steady climb and new unit sales exploding we encourage all men everywhere to keep buying your unmentionables!

Listen, spending is likely to increase this quarter and with fewer limitations comes an improved perception of purchasing power.  Besides, a new pair of BVDs just might be the thing to help you get a fresh start on how you look at the future.

Let’s hope some of the nation’s largest insurance companies understand the importance of compliance and e-discovery.  Today’s headlines highlight investigations on 52 of the nation’s biggest insurance companies targeting unreasonable expenditures and compensation paid out to employees and/or officers over the past 6 years.

The letters are out and House Democrats are requesting that insurance companies provide all the details on their employees who make over $500K… and that includes salaries, bonuses, pensions and other possible erroneous spending such as retreats and conferences.  September 14 is the deadline for the firms to have their “cards on the table” and provide copies of reports from compensation consultants, plus board drafts of compensation plans and information about market share.

Think it can’t happen to you?  Well think again.  Like it or not, every company will almost certainly one day face the overwhelming task of answering an e-discovery request.  In a case such as this, an organization needs to find information no matter where it hides.

Will your organization be ready for compliance? If not…let IMail Server guide you through the process of getting ready.

Have you ever wondered why an email was returned to you?   A bounced email is one that never arrives in the recipient’s inbox and is “bounced back” to the sender with an error message that indicates the email was never successfully transmitted. Emails bounce back for a number of reasons. Before you take it personally, here are some logical reasons your email may have bounced back to your Inbox. According to undeliverableemail.com, about 32 % of email users change their email address every year.   Well that is a good enough reason for an undeliverable email, but it isn’t necessarily always on the other end.  Typo bounces are very common. If an email comes back to you with a message “Addressee Unknown” there is a very good chance that you typed it incorrectly. 

E-Mail Etiquette gives us several other common reasons that cause undeliverable email returns:

• The person you are emailing actually gave you an incorrect email address (oops! TYPO X  2)
• The recipient’s inbox is filled to capacity due to large attachments or not logging in for a while.
• Someone who has your email address on their system has a virus that is propagating itself to old or non-existent email addresses putting your address in the FROM: field. This causes undeliverable virus generated emails to be returned to you.

Look for the clues

When you receive an email error message it is important to read through the message to look for clues to your problem.  All of your returned emails come back to you with an “undeliverable error message” that helps you determine why the message could not be delivered.  By looking for key phrases and error messages that describe the problem, you have a better chance of resolving the issue. 

Whatever the reason for email bounce back, it needs to be fixed! Your business system needs to be able to respond to bounces quickly and properly. The receiving server’s administrator is responsible for setting up these error code messages for bounces. So, if you have a problem, it is probably not a bad idea to ask your recipient to contact their mail server administrator and diagnose the issue.  Sometimes the problem is caused by spam filtering products that delete or quarantine the email.  I hate to say it, but these are just a handful of reasons that emails bounce. Hope it helps! Next time we will talk about common error messages that will help resolve your email issues.

According to Commtouch, email-borne viruses emerged with a vengeance for the second quarter of 2009.  The rise in unstoppable viruses by major anti-virus engines is due to aggressive new variants of various unusual Trojans.  This has been tough for anti-virus companies that have been unable to produce timely signatures to protect customers.   Even generic signatures have been ineffective for an outbreak of this size.

Q2 also experienced a return of image spam and the use of current events to entice readers.  Spam levels averaged 80% of all email traffic throughout the quarter, peaking at 97% in April and bottoming out at 64% in June.

Other significant events of Q2 reported by Commtouch included:

• Spammers and malware distributers used current events including the Swine Flu epidemic and death of Michael Jackson to spread their messages.
• Sites in the “Health” and “Web-based email” categories topped the list of Web categories manipulated by phishing schemes.
• “Business” was the Web site category most infected with malware.
• An average of 376,000 zombies were newly activated each day for the purpose of malicious activity.
• Image-based spam returned with new tactics foregoing MIME-format standards to trick anti-spam engines.
• Brazil continues to produce the most zombies, responsible for 17.5% of global zombie activity.

Are you one of the online shoppers who are still willing to buy products advertised in spam? The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) just reported that 12 percent of Internet users have considered purchasing a product or service being advertised in email.  MAAWG just completed the US study that included 800 interviews with people who use email.   Even with less than half of the participants admitting that they have never clicked on a spam email, the study shows that there are plenty of motivated consumers responding to those “appealing” offers keeping the spamming business afloat.  What else? Symantec reports that botnets are responsible for 80% of those emails; aka, the convenient set and forget tool of choice for those bad guy spammers.  Just as we witnessed last year with McColo Corp., when one dominating server gets shut down, it just shifts to the next.  Nasty botnets!

I can honestly say that I personally have never made an online purchase from a spammer and I have never responded to a spam email.  But I bet it is safe to say that if I asked a few of my friends, they would tell me they have temporarily put their good judgment aside and have fallen for “Have I got a deal for you”. 

Oh!  I forgot to tell you that the study was based on email addresses NOT managed by corporate IT staff.  So be sure you take time today to thank your IT administrator for having a plan for spam!

This year marks IMail Server’s 15th year anniversary. This calls for a celebration for the IMail Team but more important is the fact that over 60 million people around the world use Ipswitch IMail Server to stay connected, reduce spam and viruses, enable confidential communications and meet demanding email security requirements. CEO, Roger Greene initially set out to develop affordable software that would offer practical solutions and benefit the real business needs of network administrators, network managers and users of IT technology in organizations of all sizes. Today, IMail Server has accomplished those goals and built a strong organization and market presence by providing small and mid-sized businesses with solid messaging tools that help organizations achieve their success. 

Our success is due to the people we hire, our business partners and the valuable customers we serve. Our sincere thanks go out to all of you who have made our success possible. We are proud of everything that IMail Server has accomplished, and we are excited about the opportunities that face us going forward. We look forward to providing our customers with continued quality products, service and support for many years to come. 

Happy Birthday IMail Server!

When doing some online research this morning, I came across a year old forum on dslreports.com addressing debate as to whether spam is illegal and considered to be an invasion of privacy.  As expected, there were comments tackling both sides of legalities and from reading the comments, it appears that people in general have their own set of rules for ‘invasion of privacy’.  A particular post that caught my attention was one from GroovyPhoenx and reads in his own words as follows:

 I’d disagree with it (spam) not being an invasion of privacy.

1) I did not provide my email for them to come knocking at my “internet door” Just because there is a door there isn’t an open invitation for anyone to knock. I don’t let strangers into my home and I hang a very solid sign “No Soliciting” on my home door, let me tell you when a Door to Door person ignores it, my only reply is, “I’d never buy from someone who cannot read. Unfortunately we are not provide with a “no soliciting” option on emails.

2) Solicitors of emails would probably ignore these as they have no morals of compunction to follow rules, they ABUSE not use the internet through either illegal or at least immoral means to disturb and disrupt MY life, sure, it’s a small inconvenience etc. but why should I HAVE to read and BE inconvenienced in the first place? I’m rude to solicitors and rude to spammers, unfortunately there are also phone spammers who pull the same type of crap and hide behind the masking of telephone numbers etc.

3) Spam mail is unwanted by most, unneeded by most and abhorred by most. SPAM (Self Propagating Annoying Mails) come to my email, the only big problem with these is that I am stuck because when someone SPAMS they have found a way to hide behind a re-mailer, or other such programs (or use bots etc as mentioned) the cost? I’m annoyed, I DO pay for it with elevated internet costs and the bad guys are left to do as they please because no one wants or cares to do anything concrete to stop these idiots from abusing the network.

So, illegal? No but it should be. Invasion of privacy? You darn right it is, no ifs, ands or buts: you invade MY computer with your spam and it is taking up my time (even the 10 minutes I take to configure an anti-spam is 10 minutes too much IMHO!)

My response to Mr. Groovy is RIGHT ON!!!…and hats off to you for putting it into well-written words how most of us feel about the intrusion of SPAM on our time, our money and our servers.  With a name like GroovyPhoenx, it has to be good!  What are your thoughts on the subject?

One of the great features of most desktop email clients is the capability to set up tasks and reminders.  I use this feature in Outlook all the time to help me stay on track with important business meetings and deadlines.  I even place email pop-up reminders on my work calendar to help me remember personal dates like doctor’s appointments, parent teacher conferences and my boss’ birthday.  But I’ve never thought about how reading my email could keep me ‘fit as a fiddle’.  According to a recent article in Time, the American Journal of Preventative Medicine has just published a study indicating that simple email reminders urging healthy eating and physical activity significantly influence behavior for a healthier lifestyle.   Out of 787 office workers who participated in this study, 351 email recipients chose to receive email reminders for one of three focus areas: boosting physical activity, increasing fruit and vegetable intake or decreasing sugars and saturated fats. Barbara Sternfeld, senior research scientist at Kaiser Permanente and the study’s lead investigator indicates that, “these quick alerts remind your brain of the goals you’ve set for yourself”.  What is interesting is that participants who received the physical activity emails increased their exercise regimen by an hour a week over a 16 week period. The study, conducted by Kaiser Permanente and NutritionQuest and funded in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also determined that participants who focused on a healthy diet reduced the saturated and trans fats they consumed by more than 1 g a day.

So for someone like me who makes a regular visit to the break room for a morning cup of coffee and a Jumbo Honeybun, a daily reminder to take a brisk walk around the block not only motivates me to get in better shape but it also saves me 75 cents on my dollar. Think about how you can set goals for yourself by using your client’s reminder feature.  Most of us already know what we need to do, but a little reminder never hurts.

Note:  IMail Server fully integrates with Outlook or your favorite desktop client

For instance:

	Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
	You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
	Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having my brain removed so that I may be promoted to management.
	I will be unable to delete all the unread emails you send me until I return from vacation on 7/18. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

OK, so maybe these aren’t the best email response examples for your use, but the beauty of the auto response feature is you can set up a custom message that is just right for you.  So, regardless of whether you’ll be hiking the hills, sunning on the seashore or relaxing at home, you can eliminate the need to manually respond to your business email messages while at the same time provide the best care for all your email contacts. So go ahead and enjoy a little time off with some good summertime fun!

*TIP: Set a calendar reminder for yourself for the day you return to the office from your vacation to turn off your auto-responder. The last thing you need after a few days away is to suffer the embarrassment of a co-worker having to remind you, “Dude, you’re not on vacation anymore…turn off your auto-responder.”